Day 52 (July 30th): Berlin & Dresden

Woke up at 8:45 AM and packed up our stuff. There was a Jewish Bagel store (called Salomon Bagels) we wanted to go to yesterday but they were closed on Sunday so we decided to eat breakfast there this morning. The store was a block from our hotel. They had about 10 different types of bagels but I ordered the pretzel bagel. We bought our bagels and took them to go so we could eat in the room and finish packing. On our Berlin map there was a Jewish star where the bagel store was located and we had noticed that there was a cop standing at the store yesterday and another cop was there today. When we asked the concierge about the cop, she said that every "Yiddish" owned or operated store/site in Berlin has police presence 24 by 7. Al and I were amazed that this policy was in place. In the room, Hannah made coffee for everybody and we enjoyed our bagel breakfast. After finishing up, we packed up the car and headed over to the Jewish Museum (see picture on left). The museum exhibited the history of Jews from the beginning of time to the present. It was interesting and we spent over 3.5 hours there. You can imagine how the kids felt by the end. Our next stop was the New Synagogue (see picture on right). This synagogue has a long history and was vandalized by the Nazi's and bombed during WWII. Currently it is restored to it's original structure and we went to the top of the Dome for a somewhat limited view of the surrounding area. We then went back to the car and drove over to another section of the Berlin Wall that was still intact. This part of the wall was much larger than the one we saw yesterday near Potsdam Platz. With this section of the wall you were able to get a much better feel for the size, length and impact of the wall (see picture on top middle). We spent some time there taking pictures and got the kids ice cream before heading out (see picture on bottom middle). I still needed to get my casino chip so we drove around looking for one of the casinos. It was hidden away behind construction in the Park Inn hotel and I went in and got a chip. I was disappointed since it didn't say Berlin on the chip. It was getting late and we wanted to eat dinner before leaving Berlin. We drove down to Potsdam Platz and went into the mall food court. Zach got a salami sandwich (that I ended up eating) and Hannah wanted sushi from a Japanese restaurant that had food on a conveyor belt. We sat around the conveyor belt and took numerous plates of food. Since the good ice cream store was in this mall we went upstairs and bought a round of ice cream. I still needed a good poker chip so Al and the kids stayed at the mall while I ran around the corner to the casino. The guy at the door was very nice and went to the back for me and got me a chip (not the usual 11.5 gram clay chip). Usually, all casinos in Germany you need to pay an entrance fee and dress nice. I was happy with the chip this time since it said Berlin on it. I ran back to the mall and everybody was just finishing their ice cream so we went to the car and drove 2 hours south to Dresden. We got to the Sheraton hotel in Dresden around 10:30 PM and dropped our bags off in the room. Since we couldn't get connecting rooms, Zach and I shacked up while Al and Hannah slept together. We then went downstairs for a snack and a drink. Zach had issues with his cheese sandwich and ended up not eating at all. I had a good local brew and Al had a white wine. Back in the room, Zach and I watched CNN since it was the only English station and went to bed around 12:00 AM.